Contrary to the weeping and gnashing of teeth emanating from the chattering
class, John Ashcroft possesses the professional qualifications and personal
integrity necessary to make a fine attorney general of the United States.
In fact, he is uniquely qualified to fumigate the Clinton Justice Department
and usher in a new era of respect for the rule of law. Nevertheless, the
politically correct hordes have descended upon his nomination like locusts.

What could possibly make Ashcroft so unworthy to be attorney general?
Is he inclined to send government troops to firebomb strange but peaceful
religious sects in response to alleged non-capital crimes? Has he demonstrated
a commitment to sending young children whose mothers died bringing them
to our shores back into the clutches of communist dictatorships? Will
he look the other way when corruption takes place in the administration
he serves and circumvent the law accordingly?

No,
none of those things seem to disqualify one from heading our federal law-enforcement
efforts. Ashcroft's offense is that he is a conservative Republican, and
that is simply unacceptable, even in a Republican administration. Republicans
don't belong in the Cabinet, you see, unless their name is Bill Cohen.
Perhaps George W. Bush should demonstrate "bipartisanship" by
carrying over half the Clinton Cabinet.

Ashcroft graduated with honors from Yale and received his JD from the
prestigious University of Chicago Law School. He has served with distinction
as attorney general and governor of Missouri and US senator. He was reelected
to the governorship with 64 percent of the vote in 1988, the largest percentage
since the Civil War. He won his Senate seat in 1994 with 60 percent of
the vote, carrying all 114 counties in the state.

Polling data showed Ashcroft was likely to win reelection to his Senate
seat in the 2000 election, despite a strong challenge from his successor
in the Missouri governor's mansion, Democrat Mel Carnahan. Then tragedy
struck and Carnahan was killed in a plane crash, too late for the Democrats
to have him removed from the ballot and replaced. The acting governor
promised to appoint Carnahan's widow, Jean, to the Senate seat if his
ballot line received more votes than Ashcroft. On the wave of this sympathy
vote, in addition to a constitutionally dubious (and quickly overturned)
ruling that extended polling in Democratic St. Louis, Ashcroft was narrowly
defeated.

Despite the legal challenges that could be raised against a dead man's
constitutional qualifications for the Senate, not to mention the rogue
court ruling that probably padded Democratic vote totals, Ashcroft graciously
conceded. He thus spared Missouri a divisive post-election fight rather
than preserve his own power.

Many of the arguments his opponents use against him actually buttress
the case for Ashcroft as attorney general. He is attacked for his opposition
to racial preferences, federal intrusions into education and various spendthrift
programs. This indictment actually confirms his commitment to a color-blind
society and constitutional government. He has a stellar Senate voting
record in opposition to the federal government's involvement in areas
where it lacks constitutional authority, even when it meant voting against
popular measures like federal funds to hire more schoolteachers and the
so-called "Patients' Bill of Rights." Constitutionalists among
us prefer the original Bill of Rights, Tenth Amendment included.

Lee

The yeoman's work Ashcroft did in opposing Bill Lann Lee's appointment
to head the civil rights division of the Clinton Justice Department had
nothing to do with racism and everything to do with promoting equal justice
under the law. Lee has proven himself to be a defender of quotas, hidden
behind euphemisms like "goals and timetables." He has repeatedly
and aggressively enforced coercive and discriminatory affirmative-action
policies of the sort found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Ashcroft
should be praised rather than condemned for his record of defending individual
liberties against group rights and his unwillingness to sacrifice the
Constitution to identity politics.

Instead, Ashcroft has been smeared by his political opponents as a racist
and a bigot. One bit of evidence cited in support of Ashcroft's alleged
racial animus his blocking the appointment of black Missouri Supreme Court
Judge Ronnie White to a federal judgeship. Ashcroft's objections were
based not on race but on White's established record of laxity toward criminal
conduct. White has often been the lone dissenter in criminal cases pushing
for acquittals and light sentences, particularly in capital cases. For
this reason, White was opposed by 73 of the state's leading law-enforcement
professionals as well. Sen. Ashcroft, pointing out that blacks are more
likely to be the victims of violent crime, did not think criminals needed
more allies on the federal bench.

Ashcroft already has a proven track record of enforcing anti-discrimination
laws as Missouri attorney general that shows him to be no opponent of
civil rights. As governor of Missouri, he signed the state's Martin Luther
King holiday into law, appointed the first black woman to the state court
of appeals and made Scott Joplin's home the first historical site in Missouri
honoring a black person. He also initiated a scholarship in the name of
black educator George Washington Carver and fought to save Lincoln University,
a college founded by black soldiers. He encouraged President Reagan to
convene a federal commission on the status of minorities in 1988, which
would include Presidents Ford and Carter and Coretta Scott King. He then
was one of two members who refused to endorse its report, due to its reliance
on big-government solutions and neglect of minority progress and achievements.

Notwithstanding the propaganda about his opposition to Ronnie White,
Ashcroft has supported 23 of 26 black judicial nominees during his Senate
tenure - thus supporting black nominees at a 90 percent rate. His book
Lessons from A Father to a Son contained an entire chapter on racial reconciliation.
None of this seems to gain as much attention as his honorary degree from
Bob Jones University, which has dropped its ban on interracial dating
and marriage, or his interview with Southern Partisan magazine. Apparently
we are supposed to pretend that the great Southern warriors of the Confederate
army were not part of our history. This does a disservice to our own nation's
secessionist past (that is, in essence, what we did in the American Revolution),
as well as the blacks and slavery opponents on the Confederate side -
the latter including Robert E. Lee.

Ashcroft's impeccable pro-life credentials have also made him the target
of assault. Yet only 19 percent of the American people support totally
unrestricted access to abortion and support for taxpayer-funded abortion
on demand is as low as 6 percent. The rest of us believe the law should
offer at least some protection for the unborn. Even many supporters of
legal abortion concede that Roe v. Wade is bad constitutional law; must
then an attorney general pledge fealty to it? The nation's longest-serving
governor, Heath and Human Service Secretary-designate Tommy Thompson,
has learned that some think so.

Whether the Senate Democrats extend collegiality to an old colleague
from across the aisle or genuflect to the special interests that have
captured their party will tell the tale about their preference for "bipartisanship."
Similarly, whether moderate to liberal Republicans vote to confirm Ashcroft,
their president's nominee, will tell us much about their party loyalty
versus political expediency. Janet Reno was nominated in 1993 as a death
penalty opponent who was liberal on many constitutional and prosecutorial
issues. During her tenure, she has presided over the Waco inferno, the
armed raid of the Gonzales home to repatriate Elian to Cuba and numerous
Clinton-Gore abuses and obstructions of justice. She nevertheless was
confirmed with the support of all 43 Republicans then in the Senate. Wyoming
Republican Sen. Alan Simpson told her, "I am glad you are here."
Orrin Hatch and even Strom Thurmond similarly sang her praises.

If the decent, principled and pious John Ashcroft does not receive the
same courtesy, much less bipartisan support, as that woman, then we know
what is in store for our constitutional republic - and it isn't pretty.
Hopefully, he will be swiftly confirmed so that we can get on with the
business of resuscitating constitutional law.

W. James Antle III is a former researcher for the Rhema Group, an
Ohio-based political consulting firm. You can e-mail comments to wjantle@enterstageright.com.